Lachy Doley is an outfit from the land Down Under, Australia. A hi-energy, howling band with a dynamic power and performance. Ever popular festival as an act in their native homeland, this release captures the essence of the band’s live performance with a roaring, rattling and raucous rip-tide of self-composed live blues, always with a driving, pushing electric base.

Tracks are powered by searing electric guitar at times, followed by some top-dollar harp work and B3 keys that simply roar along. Doley’s own vocals are always centre-stage, strong and powerful. The band itself clearly draws on the modern Chicago blues tradition for fundamental inspiration at times and never loses sight of the southern-blues edge, with a deliberate down and dirty feel that seeps out of many of the fifteen tracks on offer here.

This is music best played loud. Indeed, it’s hard to see how it could be played any other way. And, for me at any rate, this poses a minor problem. The music tends to merge, track on track, until much of it has a just too much of a similar, samey sound and quality. It can be difficult to distil live performance into a recording, and much is inevitably missed or lost in the process. I’ve no doubt at all that The Lachy Doley Group is a quality live festival act, a band of journeymen giggers who know exactly what they’re about, what sound they want and need, and achieve it easily. Sadly, for me, it all becomes just too overwhelming with this release.